The Washington Blue Lion wrestling team welcomed teams from Wilmington and East Clinton High Schools for an SCOL tri-match Thursday night.

In the first match, Wilmington defeated East Clinton, 59-11.

In the second dual, the match was tied between Wilmington and Washington, 39-39.

Wilmington was awarded one point on criteria to take the 40-39 win.

In the final match of the evening, Washington beat East Clinton, 57-20.

In the middle school matches, Wilmington beat East Clinton, 46-24; Washington beat Wilmington, 34-30 and Washington beat East Clinton, 55-24.

“I was upset that we lost to Wilmington,” Washington head coach Louis Reid said. “That’s a match we should have won. We lost 40-39 on criteria. It’s because we gave up too many pins.

“I told our team, that’s one area we’ve got to improve in,” Reid said. “If we don’t give up those pins, we win that match. There were several close matches against Wilmington. If we hold on and not get pinned, just one time, we win that dual meet.

“Wilmington was one of the teams picked to win the league coming in,” Reid said. “We were right there with them.

“We have eight new wrestlers in our line-up and they wrestled tough,” Reid said. “But, we’re past the point where we can make excuses. We have to improve on fighting off our back. We won’t beat good teams if that continues.

“What I do like, we bounced back and put it on East Clinton,” Reid said. “Our guys wrestled the way they should. We put guys on their backs and we picked up some big pins. I was happy with the way we finished.”

Washington is now 3-1 in the SCOL. Wilmington is also 3-1.

The Blue Lions will be back in action Saturday at Nelsonville-York High School.